The long-argued ‘system change’ demanded by the people’s struggle is far from reach given the double standards of the government, where on one hand the National Water Supply and Drainage Board in August acted on disconnecting the water supply of 21,000 people with overdue payments, and on the other, it granted a grace period of two months for ministers and MPs of the same conduct, under the instructions of the Speaker.
Correspondents told LNW that 76 public representatives who sit and have sat in the current Parliament of Sri Lanka have failed to settle their water bills to the Board, and 15 of them have already died. The amount overdue is a staggering figure of over Rs. 3.2 million.
Among the default are 34 public representatives who are in the Cabinet and the pool of State Ministries belonging to the current Ranil Wickremesinghe-led regime, owing the National Water Supply and Drainage Board more than Rs. 4.4 million, they disclosed.
The political humour comes to play in the event that these figures are also the ones who build various arguments for the privatisation of loss-incurring public institutions by going on public record that these bodies are losing their coins because of their servants and the provision of various subsidies to the people of the country.
MIAP
